The City of Saskatoon has sensibly decided that tonight’s performance of Puppetry of the Penis: The Art of Genital Origami, at the Broadway Theatre doesn’t fall within its Adult Services Licensing Bylaw.

“The bylaw is not intended to preclude performances of an artistic, theatrical or entertainment-based nature that may include nudity, but in a non-sexualized manner,” according to a statement by Andrew Hildebrandt, the city’s director of community standards.

Certainly, it’s tough to argue that the performance by two men, who contort the defining portion of their anatomy into various shapes to hilarious effect, comes close to contravening the bylaw, which regulates services “designed to appeal to erotic or sexual appetites or inclinations.”

Meanwhile, the Broadway Theatre won’t be selling alcoholic drinks to patrons today, in compliance with provincial regulations that forbid nude performances in venues where alcohol is sold.

“It probably shows that the city is realizing that there’s a lot of adult entertainment that is actually theatrical,” noted Jackie Latendresse of the Rosebud Burlesque Club. “Hopefully it’s setting a precedent for more understanding of expression through people’s art form.”

Although the city’s decision creates the possibility that other adults-only shows with no overt sexual content may be permitted in Saskatoon in the future, it also underlines the absurdly puritanical attitude toward nudity that continues to prevail in Saskatchewan.

Even though Saskatoon is ahead of many other communities with the bylaw that also regulates adult services agencies and requires licensing performers who can prove they are 18 or older and qualify to work in Canada, the city isn’t exempt from provincial regulations that are decades out of step with most other Canadian jurisdictions.

Having taken a trembling step forward in late 2013 by “modernizing” the province’s law to allow strippers to disrobe down to thongs and pasties in places where patrons are consuming alcohol, Premier Brad Wall and his government quickly backed down a year later, saying they’d made a huge mistake.

The premier expressed concern that allowing consenting adults to disrobe in front of others in drinking establishments might contribute to global human trafficking, contribute to the sexual exploitation of performers and enrich organized crime, even though communities from Vancouver to Edmonton to Winnipeg that allow the mixing of booze and stripping seem to have no trouble on these fronts.

Rather than protect the performers from exploitation, Saskatchewan’s approach only serves to drive the industry underground and makes them more vulnerable to harm.

If strong regulations are enacted and enforced, burlesque shows or stripping needn’t be any more harmful to performers and patrons than penis puppetry.

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